UK Data Service
February 2026
Five partner universities
90+ staff
Since 2012 (UKDA \(\rightarrow\) 1967); curates national data since 2003
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UK social survey microdata:
International data: survey data, aggregate databases
Census tables and individual data – current and historical
Business microdata and administrative data
Qualitative data: multimedia files and interview transcripts
Combining different sources of data ie:
That includes a shared unit of observation (individual, household, area…)
… In a coherent way in order to:
Bidirectional
In this presentation: linkage = integration
Usually arising from the interaction between:
Exemples:
In the UK: enabled Digital Economy Act 2017:
“… de-identified data from government service providers, excluding NHS data, as part of their day-to-day functions, may be shared for public good research”
OFSTED ‘State of the nation’: anonymised data on latest schools inspections outcomes of 22,000 open schools
Linked with the MCS, currently covers years 2005 to 2019
Data on a wide range of topics i.e.:
National Employment Saving Trust ie ain occupational (i.e. employer led) pensions scheme for UK employees
Covers 1,000,000 employers, 11 millions employees
Data about:
Measured as part large scale longitudinal surveys (often via nurse visit):
Is this integrated data?
Depends on:
Major longitudinal studies:
A few large scale cross-sectional surveys such as:
Next Steps
ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing):
Largest longitudinal study of the UK population
Initial sample size: 40K households, 100K individuals
14 waves so far: 2009-23. Includes BHPS data 1991-2009
Ethnic minority boost samples, innovation panel
Very wide range of topics covered:
Data on higher education loans for Next Steps participant
Information about:
Hospitalisation Episodes Data (SN8681)
Data for children in England whose carer gave consent
Data from National Pupil Database and the Pupil Level Annual School Census.
Also available for Next Steps and Understanding Society
Ofsted Reports (SN9436)-
Trusted Research Environment - TRE
Currently enables linkage between longitudinal studies and data from:
Planned: NHS Wales, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs
Millennium Cohort Study: Linked Education Administrative Datasets (National Pupil Database - KS1-KS5), England, 2003-2021: Secure Access
Next Steps: Linked Administrative Datasets (Student Loans Company Records), 2007 - 2021: Secure Access
Vacancy Survey, 2005-2025: Secure Access
Grant, P. (2024) The Monitored Self In: The Virtual Hospital Springer, Cham.
Kerry- Barnard, S., Mohamad Zaki, N.H., Gomes, D., Ploubidis, G., Sanchez-Galvez, A. (2025) National Child Development Study: A guide to the linked health administrative datasets – Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). User Guide (Version 3). London: UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Peters, A., Sanchez-Galvez, A., Fitzsimons, E., Gomes, D. (2025) Millennium Cohort Study: Linked education administrative datasets-Ofsted User Guide (Version 1) London: UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Silber, H., Breuer, J., Beuthner, C., Gummer, T., Keusch, F., Siegers, P., … Weiß, B. (2022). Linking Surveys and Digital Trace Data: Insights From two Studies on Determinants of Data Sharing Behaviour Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society), 185(Suppl. 2), 387-407.
Whiffen, T; Akbari, A ; Paget, T ; Lowe, S; Lyons, R (2020) How effective are population health surveys for estimating prevalence of chronic conditions compared to anonymised clinical data?, International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS) Vol 5:1